Wealthy middle-aged woman, with pre-existing health problems, were the most likely to have long COVID in Australia.
Macquarie University researchers studied seven million medical records and found that, in this country, patients with long COVID were more likely to be women than men, aged 40-59 and living in a high socioeconomic area.
Professor Andrew Georgiou said they usually also had pre-existing health problems.
Professor Georgiou said while the global COVID pandemic was declared over by health authorities in 2023, the impact of long COVID continued to pose a challenge to medical care and research.
“Most people infected with SARS-CoV-2 (COVID) fully recover after a few weeks, but some patients face persistent symptoms for many months after the infection,” he said.
“There is no universally agreed definition of long COVID, but common symptoms include shortness of breath, cough, chest pain, fatigue, brain fog, dizziness, abdominal pain or nausea and even organ damage.”
Professor Georgiou said the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare estimated up to 10 percent of COVID patients would develop long COVID, imposing a significant burden on the health system and economy.
“Improving our understanding of long COVID, including who is being diagnosed, is vital to enhancing patient access to appropriate care, services and treatment,” he said.
Professor Georgiou said Australians experienced the pandemic differently from most other countries, with the majority of exposure to COVID occurring after vaccination and predominantly from the Omicron variant.
“This unique context suggests Australia should have a lesser burden of long COVID than overseas, but there is a lot more we need to find out.”
Professor Georgiou said GPs should continue to listen to patients and to record symptoms of long COVID in medical records otherwise the condition would continue to be under-represented in health statistics.
“Mental health, respiratory conditions such as asthma or emphysema, cancer or musculoskeletal conditions such as arthritis were among the chronic health conditions found in patients diagnosed with long COVID.”
He said uncertainty in making and documenting a definitive long COVID diagnosis while evidence of the condition was still emerging suggested the study almost certainly underrepresented the prevalence of the illness.
